WADA, Masahiro:Overall
"We had been training all week to deal with the Sanfrecce formation and I told Okubo and Park to drop back in defense to cover Mikic and Yamagishi on either side when needed. Tanaka got his second bench start since coming back and the unfortunate injury to Mihara early on gave him an opportunity to make his mark, which he did with a wonderful goal. Getting our third win on the trot is huge for us and gives us a lot of confidence. The only disappointment was that we weren't able to capitalize on the 3 or 4 chances we had on the counter."

TANAKA Hideo:The goal
"After drawing the defenders towards him, Yoshito saw the run I was making and I gave me the ball in just the right spot."You immediately ran to the manager
"Yes, I was thankful for having been given the opportunity. It's my 7th year here and I wanted to give something back, and I hope I can do the same again for the team, the manager and myself."

OKUBO Yoshito:Overall
"Up until now, Hiroshima have done a lot of damage to teams with their formation and side changing, so we worked really hard in training to deal with this, particularly with Kang-jo and myself man-marking on the sides. It was exhausting."Your chances
"I should have scored. I will try to put them away next time."

La Famiglia: I knew Tanaka would get a chance today but didn't realise it would be so soon in the match. Great goal and a solid performance from him all round.
Hiroshima have been playing the exact same formation for at least 2 years and most teams usually set up to combat this. Today, Wada's defensive tactics worked, but we should've had at least 3 more goals on the counter. Okubo was very wasteful.
If I had to criticise Wada for anything, it would be the timing for substituting Tokura. He was clearly struggling (tired) from about the 65th minute, constantly going to the side to guzzle water, and his impact on the game was dwindling. Tokura should have come off before Morioka, not after.
Anyway, we're third!